You are here

Li Chen

Biography:

Professor Chen is currently Associate Professor of History, Global Asia Studies, and Sociolegal Studies at the University of Toronto. He is also President of the International Society for Chinese Law and History (2014-2017) and member of the Editorial Board of the Law and History Review and of the Publications Committee of the American Society for Legal History.

His research and teaching interests include late Imperial and modern China (15th-20th centuries), Chinese law and society, Sino-Western relations, international law and history, empire and postcolonial studies. He presented his research at various institutions, including Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, Duke University, University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University, College de France, and University of Helsinki.

His recent publications include:

“Law, Empire, and Historiography of Modern Sino-Western Relations: A Case Study of the Lady Hughes Controversy in 1784,” Law & History Review 27.1 (2009): 1-53 (won honorable mention for the Law and Society Association’s 2011 Article Prize, and translated into Chinese as “法律、帝国与近代中西关系历史学,” 北大法律评论 (Peking University Law Review) 12.2 (Sept. 2011): 437-81);

“Universalism and Equal Sovereignty as Contested Myths of International Law in the Sino-Western Encounter,” Journal of the History of International Law 13.1 (2011):75-116 (translated into Chinese by 法律史译评 (Legal History Studies: Translation and Critiques);

“Power of Knowledge: The Role of Secret and Published Treatises of Private Legal Specialists in the Qing Juridical Field” (知识的力量: 清代幕友秘本和公开出版的律学著作对清代司法场域的影响), Journal of Zhejiang University 45.1 (Jan. 2015): 13-32 (in Chinese);

“Contestation over Legal Knowledge and Limits of Imperial Power in Qing China,” in Chinese Law: Knowledge, Practice and Transformation, 1530s-1950s (Brill, 2015), 254-86 (translated into Chinese in 复旦法律评论 (Fudan Law Review), March 2016);

He is currently working on a SSHRC-funded book project on the legal culture and juridical field in late imperial China, and several book chapters and articles on international law and empire, Chinese modernity, or Qing jurisprudential politics. More information about his research can be found here.

Education:

B.A. in English (Beijing Foreign Studies)M.A. in Political Science (SUNY Buffalo)J.D. in Law (Illinois) (magna cum laude)M.A., M.Ph., Ph.D. in Chinese History (Columbia)

Stay connected

We wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.